Museum of Living Archives; The Mary Watts Diatanglogues: Curation as an Artistic-Research Paradigm for Performance Making / Fritha Fallon (2025)

Led by Fritha Celia Fallon in 2025, this practice as research project has the title Museum of Living Archives, The Mary Watts Diatanglogues. Through investigating curation as an artistic research paradigm for performance making, it also uncovers, validates and underpins the core values and beliefs that motivate the author’s artistic practice. This thesis integrates constructivist, phenomenological, quantum scientific and new materialistic approaches to investigate concepts of heritage and archive, and modes of engagement with heritage and archives, through dance and performance making. By synthesising choreography practice, curatorial practice and performative research methods, it emphasises collaborative enquiry, embodied cognition, creativity and imagination. The project aims to innovate and provide original outcomes through an exchange of ideas between theatre production and museum curation. The research highlights the cross-currents between the broader contexts of dance performance and exhibitionary art. Findings indicate that theatre performance can extend the reach of museums and heritage sites and facilitate a broader engagement and appreciation. It offers new ideas for cultural planning, showing how artists can lead the way forward, towards a more positive and healthy future.